rakerman

URBSite is a chronicle of observations on Ottawa's architecture, urban design and history.

Nobel-prize-winning economist Joseph E. Stiglitz contrasts the American response to its economic crisis with the measures it shoved down the throats of poor countries during their crises, and discusses why rich-world double-standards ("Buy American/European" provisions in bailouts that only discriminate against poor countries) contribute to a global disillusionment in the values that the rich world nominally espouses: democracy, transparency, and so on.

Alex from Worldchanging sez, "I have a new piece up about how the right is spinning geoengineering to undermine climate action. No matter what our stance on geoengineering itself - pro, con, undecided -- we should all agree that the last thing we need are climate denialists manipulating the debate."

Hopefully this will kill Lansdowne Live. pullquote: "Neither the Lansdowne Live nor the Kanata soccer stadium proposal would qualify for government stimulus spending and both would have to compete with the city’s rapid-transit network for funding under the federal governments’ regular infrastructure program, the municipality’s top manager says."

President Obama outlined his vision today for high-speed rail service in the U.S, identifying 10 corridors in heavily populated regions around the country – from the Pacific northwest to the gulf states – for the laying of hundreds of miles of new tracks.

A Viennese tourist has vowed never to return to London after police officers forced him to delete photos he'd taken of the Vauxhall bus station, saying it was "strictly forbidden" and recording details from his identity papers. There's no evidence that terrorists use photos to plan their attacks, nor that preventing photography reduces the likelihood of a terrorist attack. London's police have been granted sweeping "anti-terrorism" powers, including the authority to arrest people who take pictures of the police.

WASHINGTON—According to sources in the White House, President Barack Obama has been uncharacteristically distant and withdrawn ever since last month's two-hour series finale of Battlestar Galactica.

"The problem for BSG's deity, though, is in the self-defeating combination of the divine experiment with the deity's behavior. We've already explored one aspect of this problem by noting the deity's continued desire to meddle even after the experiment has begun, a meddling that was probably instrumental in leading to humanity's fall in each case. We need to talk about another problem, though-- one hinted at by the way the series concludes."

"My issue here was of being let down by the writers basically failing to deliver on the implicit pact between writer and viewer not to break the rules of type of dis-belief involved. As I said I was concerned at the beginning that the parameters here were dangerously unclear and am disappointed to find out 4 years later that I was right. Even so the deus ex machinas used especially but, not only, over Kara Thrace, were incredibly bad story telling, period. (I would hope) one would not qualify in a creative writing degree doing this and the writers should be ashamed of themselves."

A good clear examination of some of the major flaws with the ending. pullquote: 'So say we all? Not even close. Fans are deeply divided over "Battlestar Galactica's" super-sized series finale, and we don't blame them. While the last episode did indeed wrap up a good many storylines nicely and succinctly, we were unfortunately left with far more questions than answers. Here's our list of the most burning questions about what the frak was really going on, and what it all was supposed to mean.'

Another good comment in the "went on two seasons too long" vein. pullquote: "This was my favorite show until the end of the second season where they went through the looking glass (New Caprica) and never returned."

pullquote: "Yeah, there was a trial, and Baltar was found innocent. But we’re talking about the overall arc of the story. We the audience knew what he did, and the fact that he got away with it is just so disgusting. When you take, or destroy, your redemption comes in giving and creating. Baltar did nothing in the series that was not linked to his own preservation. Not a goddamn thing."

pullquote: "I could not have been more disappointed with the cowardly ambiguity of this finale. You built Kara up to be something, but without even your own idea as to what. That’s not writing. That’s daydreaming. You built Hera up to be something, but she turned out to be nothing more than a little girl. She affected nothing. You turned Adama into a simpering goat, who dealt with death on a daily basis but abandoned his son and everyone else because Rosslyn was dying. ... There’s a fine line between clever and stupid, but this is just disrespectful to your fans."

Generally informed commentary (err, the upmodded bits that is) on the suck that was the finale. Lots of people saying roughly "next time, be like B5 and actually Have a Plan".

This review is all kinds of awesome. pullquote: "there's a way to do this with reverence toward what's gone before, creating a greater whole out of the sum of all your parts, and there's a way to do it after a long night of coffee: assembling the pieces you've got on the table in front of you in a way that you think might fly, just to get it off your desk."

I didn't notice the whole alcohol angle, but it is quite striking now that it's mentioned. pullquote: "Atheism is the real enemy of mankind’s progress; salvation seems to lie in a vague belief in angels and higher powers, as if the series thought of itself as a promotional appendage of Alcoholics Anonymous. I’m not sure that in the most fleeting sense, it hasn’t. The final three hours of the series devote considerable time flashing back to the lives of the survivors before the fall, who are all shown drinking to the point of physical and psychological compromise."

I have a suggestion: f*** traffic. Although I'd be happy if it just didn't SUCK. pullquote: "We will try to reach a balance between accommodating traffic and public space," says Irwin.

The Harper government has been prone to gimmicky tax-and-spend measures in the past that were more focused on buying votes than building productivity. This is no time for gimmicks and games. With this budget, the economic stakes are simply too high.

In 2007, the most recent year that numbers are available, the American Automobile Association figured its members paid about $7,800 a year on average to own and maintain their cars. That figure dropped to about $6,200 for small-car owners.

The MP who leads the non-partisan "rail caucus" in the House of Commons is pushing a new high-speed rail plan -- a super-fast tri-city train link between Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal.

This is one reason the collapse of our financial system has inspired not merely a national but a global crisis of confidence. Good God, the world seems to be saying, if they don’t know what they are doing with money, who does?

About 149,000 Hydro One customers were still without power in southwest and central Ontario on Monday morning, according to the utility's website. At one point over the weekend, about 230,000 customers -- mostly in rural areas -- were sitting in the dark. Many of them lost power after wind gusts of up to 100 kilometres per hour swept across the province.

Last week, our Open for Questions feature was particularly well-received: more than 20,000 people cast nearly 1,000,000 votes on questions posed by the community. Overall, just over 10,000 questions were voted up or down and ranked by visitors to the site. The result is a snapshot of the issues you're concerned about as the pieces for the next administration move into place.

fficials put Rome on a state of alert for the Tiber breaking its banks Friday, after days of unrelenting rain and thunderstorms that the mayor likened to an "earthquake" striking the Italian capital.

Power outages across New York and New England approached 1 million homes and businesses early Friday after snow and ice storms starting late Thursday damaged power lines, local utilities reported.